Abstract
Within the past decade, the use of social media has percolated through every branch of society and has become a priority for many research organizations (Cooke et al., 2017). The majority of Americans report using the internet as their preferred source of science and technology information, which can be positive or negative considering the growing media landscape (Lee & VanDyke, 2015). NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) utilizes social media to disseminate research findings and to direct users back to the AOML website where more in-depth material is provided.
The AOML website features an outreach and education page, which has been an indispensable tool for communicating science between AOML and the science curious public for years. However, the target audience of the page was not well defined, which led to material intended for various learning levels being presented all at once. This limited the effectiveness, accessibility, and value of the material.
The methodology of this project was determined by collaborating with NOAA communication teams to identify best practices for designing outreach and education pages supported by social media campaigns. Two media campaigns were implemented to measure the user traffic directed back to the website and define AOML’s audiences and their interests. The results of this project provided more accessible, scientific material to three targeted audiences: educators, students, and the science curious public. Products from this project include the live redesigned web page, a best practices document, a virtual guest speaker video series, over 40 social media posts, and a new public interactive question and answer box.
While this was a successful project that produced multiple outputs, it also acts as a starting point for multiple opportunities for future work. The most notable future project is the implementation of a mobile-friendly web page so users directed from social media can access all available material without the use of a computer. Also, the creation of a link in the Instagram bio for easy link access would increase the amount of users being directed back to the site. More future projects are outlined towards the end of this report.